UVA Board of Visitors elects new leaders: Cleaning house from the MAGA era

The UVA Board of Visitors has new leadership: out, the MAGAs who forced a lackluster guy into the president’s office; in, two Abigail Spanberger appointees whose mission needs to be, cleaning house.

“I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to serve the University and the commonwealth as rector of the Board of Visitors,” said Carlos Brown, a 1996 UVA alum and 1999 UVA Law alum, who was elected rector, effectively, chairman, of the BOS, on Friday.

“I love this institution, and I know firsthand the incredible impact UVA has on the lives of the people who live, learn and work here. I am eager to get to work alongside my fellow board members and looking forward to what we can achieve together,” said Brown, executive vice president, chief administrative and projects officer and corporate secretary of Dominion Energy, and president of Dominion Energy Services Inc.

Victoria Harker, a 1986 UVA alum who served executive vice president and chief financial officer of TEGNA Inc., formerly Gannett Co. Inc., until 2024, was elected vice rector.

“It is an honor to be selected to serve as the vice rector of the Board of Visitors,” Harker said. “I am grateful to my colleagues for the trust they have placed in me, and I look forward to working alongside Rector Brown and the entire board to support this great institution and advance its important education, research and health care mission.”

Alright, so, pleasantries out of the way, next order of business is, Scott Beardsley, the president foisted upon us by the MAGAs who had the help of the Trump DOJ to force Jim Ryan out as president last year, and used the opening to put one of their own in the president’s office.

Beardsley, let’s just say, he has his issues – lack of academic rigor being among them; also, he got the job because he’s one of them.

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ICYMI

• Analysis: It won’t cost nearly as much for UVA to name a new president as you thought
• Prof shades new UVA president: Not qualified for elite university presidency
• Vanishing act: How UVA’s presidential search missed what took us an hour to find

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Problem being for him: them aren’t in charge anymore.

The UVA Communications people made sure to include a quote from Beardsley in the item on the UVA News website that, oddly, didn’t go out as a press release – at least not to me.

“I am grateful to all of our board members for their service to the University,” Beardsley said in the news item. “I look forward to working with Carlos Brown, Victoria Harker and the entire board to advance the best interests of the University we all love.”